Sunday, May 17, 2015

5 Ways Journalism Taught me to be a Better Creative Writer

When I was a kid, I told myself I would never go into journalism.
It was too terrifying for an introvert like me. How could I ever talk with all
those people? As it turns out, I ended up taking newspaper workshop to fulfill
my writing minor in college. So there I found myself last semester doing the
very things I was terrified of doing: talking.

But I learned several things along the way.

1) How
to send an e-mail.

I despise sending e-mails. They are incredibly
stressful, especially since I often re-read them five times, click send, and then catch a grammatical error. How
frustrating is that?

Nonetheless, e-mails must be sent in order to make necessary
contacts. In my journalism writing class, it was considered polite to set up an
appointment prior to an interview, which involved many e-mails. Even though I
had sent many e-mails prior to taking this class, I had never sent so many each week.This constant routine forced me past my fear and
into clicking the send button.

This skill of sending e-mails is essential for any writer
today, especially creative writers. What better way is there to send out an
e-mail to a publisher than by practicing?

2) How
to talk with people I don’t know.

College overall taught me this, but in this particular
class, I had speak with a lot of people I didn’t know. Although the thought
initially scared me, another thought kept me going. If I didn’t speak with
people and get any of my interviews, I would undoubtedly receive an F. And
for me, a B or below is scarier than talking with a person.

In some ways, speaking to people is necessary for writing.
If I, as a writer, am never willing to meet to new people and establish new
relationships, how could I ever hope to get anything published? And the
prospect of never getting published is scarier than any potential rejection
letter.

3) How to talk with people I know.

It's harder to ask people I know for things than it is to ask strangers. At least with the latter, I can be polite, and I will probably never see them again. With people I know, I have to be more careful because I will see them again. And again. Chances are, they might not remember a blunder, but I will.

While I didn’t necessarily get over these fears, I came up with a strategy. When approaching somebody I knew, I always had icebreaker (not to be confused with a bribe). I liked to walk up to people with a box of chocolate and offer them a piece, ask them how their day was, and then ask about an interview. It worked wonders.

Even after the interviews, I talked with the people I knew and developed relationships, which is beneficial for writers, readers, and people alike.

4) How to interview people.

This is not quite the same thing as talking to people. That requires courage. Interviewing requires knowing the correct questions. Once I knew these, everything became a simple matter of listening and recording. Interviews can be helpful for fiction and nonfiction writers
alike in order to ensure accuracy historically,
scientifically, psychologically, etc.

5) Having a word limit.

Another difficult things for any writer is word limit, but I have a tendency to write more than is required. Instead of scrambling to put in filler just to make 250 words, I would often end up with too many. 300-350 word limit. You meant 400-450 right? This often resulted in cutting out words and even valuable material. Often times, I would have three pages worth of interview notes but had to summarize this information to one page. Each time I wrote an article, I had to focus the main essence and sometimes leave things out. While cutting words may hurt, it can prove beneficial. The more concise and direct a piece of writing is, the better. It’s also great for writing flash fiction. Less is more!

* * * * *

This entry is not to say that I have mastered journalism or my
fears. But I have learned that some people are not as scary to talk with as they
may originally seem and that various disciplines can teach necessary skills to
creative writers.

Do you know any other ways that journalism could benefit creative writers? Are there any instances when facing your fears helped you learn something?